‘I Told Them’ is available on all digital platforms
Nigerian superstar Burna Boy has released his seventh album, I Told Them. The album premiered on digital platforms in the wee hours of the morning on August 25.
During an interview with Apple’s Zane Lowe, Burna spoke about the journey that led him to global success, the 12 jewels to a happy life, what sets the new album apart, being proud of his accomplishments, Virgil Abloh’s influence, collaborating with RZA, embracing substance in Afrobeats, and more.
Here are 9 things we learned.
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On to expect from his new album ‘I Told Them…’
It kind of showed me exactly the way I wanted to express what I was feeling and what my unit was feeling. The spirit of my unit. Just put that in because this is every day. This is a side where people don’t really get to see because I don’t really care for anyone to see. I have fun with it like this. But I felt like this time, this is a way… How do I put it? A more understandable way to pass that feeling and that energy across. And at the same time, showing you that’s… Not you. Showing everyone, really, that the combination of worlds is something that we haven’t really capitalized on. Because at the end of the day, once we’re all unified, everything else, the fruits of that just take care of everything.
On the meaning of the album title
…they say a lot of times that prophets is not really recognizing its own home and shit. So this one is for the part of my own home and the people in my own home who didn’t believe or doubt it, or still doubt, or any type of thing. And not just them, it’s like everyone that ever heard me speak in the past or when I’d first started. You can go back to my old tweets and stuff. I basically predicted everything that’s happening now. So this is basically that. It’s fun to tell people something is true, and they doubt, and then they end up seeing it. There’s no greater feeling.
On getting credit
I’m not going to say I don’t want credit because everyone wants credit for what they do and shit. For me, it’s more like I want credit from places where it actually matters. Even though in reality don’t mean nothing but places where you can say why, you can explain and it makes sense to everybody. That’s the type of shit I want. I want to go somewhere where it’s like they see the work and they see everything, the journey and everything, and they’re like, “This is amazing. Yeah, congratulations.” That’s the type of shit that means something. You don’t get that in my country. It means something to the people who are not part of the game in a way. It means something to people who have nothing to gain or lose and no stakes in the matter.
on being proud of his accomplishments…
That’s the thing I’ve beat my chest the most about. It’s the fact that, yeah, not only did I do it on my own terms and all that, I did it against all odds. You know what I mean? And against the wishes of the powers that be in my environment. You know what I mean? So yeah, it’s something I’m really proud of.
About Virgil Abloh’s Influence…
Especially like Virgil was the heart of this s**t. You know what I mean? The heart of the whole fashion world, especially for us Black. Not just that, it’s just the cool creativity in the man’s head. This is the difference. You look at something, he looks at it, you are seeing different colours than each, you know what I mean? It’s crazy.
On embracing substance in Afrobeats…
…you hear most of Nigerian music, or I’ll say African… I don’t even know what to say, Afrobeats, as people call it, it’s mostly about nothing, literally nothing. There’s no substance to it. Nobody’s talking about anything. It’s just a great time, it’s an amazing time. But at the end of the day, life is not an amazing time. No matter how nice of a time you’re having now or you had at some point or you plan to have, you’re still going to face life. So it’s like, for me, I feel like music should be that, music should be the essence of the artist, you understand? The artist is a person, like me speaking for myself, the artist is a person who has good days, bad days, great days, and worst days. And for me, if I give you something like this with my face on it, and my name, then I should be giving you that experience. That should be a window for you to see some of that essence.
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About collaborating with RZA…
Yeah, it’s been a great honour, man. He wasn’t there. We weren’t personally in the studio together when he did it, but when he sent the first draft to me, I could just feel the energy, it’s like most of the shit is about, he’s connecting things that have to do with photography, shit that has to do with the vision, like photographic shit. And he’s made the whole thing, he combined and interlock and it’s just crazy.
On Fela Kuti…
I am grateful for the fact that he existed in his time so that we could get and experience the true organic nature of what he was and the essence of what he stood for and the message he passed across to us.
on the benefits of travelling the world…
Man, the more I see the world and the more I experience just makes me understand myself a bit more, understand why things are the way they are a bit more. I just have a lot of answers to a lot of questions I used to have and previously didn’t have answers for.
